Quote Originally Posted by JimR View Post
Ah, see, that's where you're wrong. It most certainly could hurt--it could dissolve your stone, warp it into unusability, or eventually cause it to split into pieces. It all depends on what stone you're using--and if you think all makers are the same, again, I fear you're mistaken.

We're not talking about opinions, here, we're talking about materials, and their actual physical qualities.
That's very true Jim and a valuable point to make.

On some of the knife forums I subscribe to - and one in particular - come stories of the chosera going soft and crumbly, bits 'blistering' and falling of, one stone that split into two pieces and one that even split into five pieces!

If the makers and heavy users of these stones think that soaking makes a difference then it probably does - the question is, how much difference? If it is a mere subtlety of point then quite frankly I'm not interested as far as the low grit stones go - that includes the 1k, 3k and probably the 5k (I have not got the 5k chosera yet - I use the superstone version - I don't soak that either). In relatively coarse cutting subtle improvements are of little consequence to me.

I don't think Lynn soaks his choseras either - I think I read he gives them a heavy spray and lets it sit for 5 minutes and then sprays again and hones - much the same as my pouring a puddle of water onto the stone and letting it sit while I'm honing on a lower grit (forgive me if I'm putting words into your mouth here, Lynn - I can recall reading a posting of yours something to that effect - no doubt you will correct me if I got it wrong!).

I'm not convinced that the formulation of the stone hasn't changed, either. I have read of people saying that the 1k chosera is 'very thirsty' and one person even saying that it is 'the thirstiest' stone he ever came across. Mine couldn't be more different - the puddle of water I pour over it to evenly and liberally coat the surface sits there for quite some time. The only thing that makes sense of this to me is that the formulation has changed at some time, but who knows how many of each formulation are in stockpiles?

I think the other posters last remarks about 'soaking can't hurt' are totally wrong and even quite the opposite of the truth - 'not soaking can't hurt' would seem more appropriate as from the moment they are packaged in the factory they are dry and sit in dry place for who knows how long before bought - they survive that fairly well!

Regards,
Neil